Shine Bright: The Lighthouses of the North of Boston Part III

August 28, 2015

This month, we’ve introduced you to a few of the North of Boston region’s 12 lighthouses – Salem’s three structures and the lighthouses of Rockport. This week we bring you three more lighthouses from the southern part of the region – “the ugly duckling” lighthouse, “the heartbreaker,” and the “Lost Light of the North of Boston.”

In 1834, four acres of Marblehead Neck were purchased for $375 and were to serve as the location for a new lighthouse to signal the town’s increasingly busy harbor. This 23-foot brick (or stone, depending on your source) tower was first lit up in October 1835 and was a great asset. In 1889 alone, the lighthouse keeper was credited with saving 17 lives.

This success, however, was diminished by Marblehead’s affluent residents who started building large houses on the land around the lighthouse. These tall mansions blocked the flashes of light from the station and a lantern hoisted up a tall mast planted into the ground was a poor substitute. In 1895, a 100-foot structure was in order and the town could choose between a $8,700 skeletal structure and a $45,000 brick tower. At nearly $40,000 cheaper, the town went with the skeletal structure (which was completed in 1896). This current structure was equipped with electricity in 1922 and then fully automated in 1960. Today, the town of Marblehead receives sporadic requests to paint the structure a more becoming white.

Marblehead Light is one of the lighthouses in the region that visitors are welcome to walk right up to. Chandler Hovey donated the land around the lighthouse in 1947 to Marblehead with the understanding that it would be turned into a public park. Today, Chandler Hovey Park bears its donor’s name and is a wonderful spot to visit the lighthouse and look over the water.

Beverly’s Hospital Point Light Station was the third lighthouse built in a series of three structures erected to light Salem Harbor. The Derby Wharf and Fort Pickering Light Stations were completed in 1871 and Beverly’s lighthouse came the following year. Hospital Point’s light itself was pulled from a temporary station erected during construction (which includes one of five original Fresnel Lenses still active in Massachusetts).

Hospital Point Light Station probably rivals the Thacher Island Twin Lights for the most unfortunate naming circumstances – it was originally named for a smallpox hospital located on the site that the lighthouse was built. According to LighthouseFriends.com, it is often speculated that:

The “Lost Lighthouse” of the North of Boston region, Egg Rock Lighthouse was constructed at the request of Swampscott fishermen to guide them in and out of the Swampscott/Lynn harbor. This first lighthouse, built in 1856, was burned down in 1897. A new one (pictured) was a keeper’s house/light station hybrid built in its place. For unknown reasons, the light was discontinued and this lighthouse was abandoned in 1922. It had served as a training site during World War I and was even outfitted with a telephone at the turn of the century, making it seem even stranger that the lighthouse would simply be abandoned.

The lighthouse and cottage were sold for a whopping $5, under the condition that they had to be removed from the island. Unfortunately, during the move, one of the ropes that was to lower the building onto a barge gave way and the structure crashed into the water. Apparently, the second Egg Rock Light was just as unlucky as the first.

Bad luck aside, Egg Rock Light did have some lighter, more adventurous moments. Milo, a dog owned by the first lighthouse keeper, would bark warnings to passing fishermen and even rescued several children during his time at Egg Rock. The second lighthouse keeper, whose wife was in labor, managed to navigate from Egg Rock to the mainland Nahant during a storm to pick up a midwife. On the way back, their boat capsized but even then, the expectant father and midwife of them made it back in time to deliver the baby. A third, most likely apocryphal tale, is of a keeper whose wife died during bad weather. Unable to leave the island, he put her in cold storage until he was later able to bring her to Nahant for burial. While in Nahant, he managed to pick up a second wife and bring her back with him.